Wendy Yoshimura and the Politics of Hugging in the 1970s

This article examines Wendy Yoshimura, the Japanese American woman who gained notoriety when arrested alongside Patricia Hearst. The Japanese American redress movement was emerging as the American public was captivated by Hearst and her challenge to her white patrician family. By analyzing media representations of whom Hearst and Yoshimura embraced—what I call the politics of hugging—I argue that Japanese Americans publicized past grievances by deploying the discourse of the heteronormative family. In considering the queer intimacy between Yoshimura and Hearst fictionalized in Susan Choi's American Woman, I critique Yoshimura's publicity for eliding affiliations outside the straight logic of nation and race.